Hall’s AEW Dynamite Review 7.24.24

Dynamite
Date: July 24, 2024
Location: Bridgestone Arena, Nashville, Tennessee
Commentators: Excalibur, Tony Schiavone, Taz

It’s time for a special show with Blood & Guts as the Elite faces Team AEW in what is likely going to be a rather long fight. We also have Minoru Suzuki challenging Chris Jericho for the FTW Title in what could be quite the train wreck. We are about a month away from All In and the show could use some more stuff, some of which might be announced this week. Let’s get to it.

Will Ospreay is trying to drive to the arena but someone has punctured his tire. He makes Alex Marvez give him the keys to Marvez’s car and speeds off, mentioning that he hasn’t driven in America.

Here is MJF, with cheerleaders, to brag about how easy it was to beat Ospreay last week. Some people would say Ospreay needs to go wait for a title shot, but since his grandmother just died, so he should dig a grave next t her. Just make it a long way off because the woman was large. We’ll move on to the International Title, which is supposed to be the Workhorse Title. The fans like it because international stars fought for it and ans of those wrestlers should be deported.

MJF calls the title garbage and throws it in a trashcan. He unveils a new title, dubbed the America’s Title, and brags about Long Island. Streamers fly and an MJF flag is unrolled, but here is Will Ospreay to chase him off. Ospreay talks about how MJF had to cheat to win rather than admit that Ospreay could beat him. He’s spoke to Tony Khan and the rematch is officially on For All In. MJF isn’t pleased.

The Elite has attacked Christopher Daniels and then does the coin toss for tonight’s advantage, with the Elite winning. They aren’t worried about Hangman Page but also reveal it was a two sided coin. Now, I know Tony Khan isn’t going to do anything about this and I have no idea why.

FTW Title: Minoru Suzuki vs. Chris Jericho

Jericho is defending and the fans are behind Suzuki. They chop it out…and keep chopping…and continue chopping….before chopping some more in between the rings. Jericho’s chest is bleeding as we are almost five minutes in and they have literally not done a move other than a chop. Jericho finally falls down and we take a break, coming back with even more chopping (and more blood on Jericho’s chest).

Jericho finally kicks him in the chest (the fans disapprove) and puts him on the apron, where the triangle dropkick has to be pulled up short as Suzuki isn’t ready to knock him out of the air. They fight outside with Suzuki hitting him with a chair and then Pillmanizing the hand. The hand is bent backwards both on the floor and back inside but Jericho hits a quick Codebreaker for one. Some forearms have Suzuki staggered but he blocks the Walls and grabs a sleeper. That’s broken up with a low blow and the Judas Effect retains the title at 13:57.

Rating: C. I get that the chop thing was supposed to be some test of wills or whatever but it was going on for about seven minutes with nothing else but chops. At the same time, Suzuki may be a legend but his matches are getting harder and harder to watch as he isn’t exactly doing anything great. I wasn’t feeling this at all and they easily could have cut five minutes out.

Post match Suzuki chokes Jericho and hits the Gotch Style Piledriver but the Learning Tree runs in to beat him down. Katsuyori Shibata runs in for the save.

Willow Nightingale is the new CMLL Women’s champion but gets jumped by Kris Statlander. Stokely Hathaway pops in to suggest an eliminator match for next week. Not a title match mind you, but at eliminator match.

Earlier today, Bryan Danielson was talking to Renee Paquette, where he said that he had a bad neck but his doctors have said it’s fixable. They just need to make sure it stays that way. Jeff Jarrett comes in to say Danielson was the right man to win the Owen Hart Tournament, but Jarrett thinks Danielson needs to heal up mentally. He doesn’t want Danielson to have an excuse, because if he’s going to go all in, he needs to go all in. Jarrett is at the top of a list of people who believe in him. Danielson seems touched and says he has a lot of work to do. Jarrett was rally good here and you could feel the emotion.

Britt Baker vs. Hikaru Shida

Feeling out process to start and Baker gets a rollup for an early two. Lockjaw is blocked and they trade rollup for two each. They fight outside with Shida hammering away against the barricade. We take a break and come back with Baker grabbing a neckbreaker into a Sling Blade for the knockdown.

The Lockjaw glove is loaded up but Shida pulls her into a triangle choke. That’s broken up so they trade rollups for two more but Shida teases going for the kendo stick. That takes too long though and Baker grabs a fisherman’s neckbreaker for two. Shida hits the Falcon Arrow but the Katana is countered, setting up the Lockjaw to give Baker the win at 10:18.

Rating: C+. This was Baker’s first match in nearly a year and you could definitely see some ring rust out there. Some of her timing was off and there were parts where it felt like they weren’t on the same page. That being said, baker’s attitude and personality have always been what matter more than her in-ring work and if it is passable enough, which it was here, she’ll be fine.

Post match Mercedes Mone comes out to say she knows Baker wants a TBS Title shot but that isn’t happening. Cue the debuting Kamille (a rather tall monster) to jump Baker from behind. A torture rack leaves Baker laying.

The Patriarchy brags about winning the Trios Titles and Christian Cage promises that Nick Wayne is going to win the Royal Rampage on Rampage….but he gets distracted by Kip Sabian. Wayne says he’ll beat him in the Royal Rampage and no one cares that Sabian’s dad is dead.

Pac vs. Boulder

Pac kicks him into the corner to start but gets knocked down. A moonsault misses for Boulder though and Pac chokes away in the corner. Pac manages a brainbuster for the win at 1:50.

Team AEW is ready for Blood & Guts, even if they’re never going to get along. Mark Briscoe calms things down and rallies the troops.

Mariah May vs. Kaitlyn Alexis

May knocks her into the corner at the bell and hammers away, setting up May Day for…no cover. Instead it’s a running hip attack into Storm Zero for the pin at 1:36.

Post match Toni Storm’s music plays but she doesn’t come out, leaving May pleased. Then Storm pops up in disguise for the fight, with security breaking it up. Storm shouts that May better be prepared to die because she already is.

We get a long video on Blood & Guts, as narrated by Dean Malenko, noted cage match specialist.

The rules:

• Two men start for five minutes.
• After five minutes, the Elite will get a one man advantage for a “regularly scheduled interval” (usually 2-3 minutes).
• After that time, Team AEW will add another man to tie it up. The teams will alternate until all ten are in.
• When everyone is in, first submission wins.

Blood & Guts

Team AEW: Darby Allin, Swerve Strickland, Max Caster, Anthony Bowens, Mark Briscoe
Elite: Jack Perry, Nick Jackson, Matt Jackson, Hangman Page, Kazuchika Okada

Perry is in at #1 for the Elite with Allin coming in at #1 for Team AEW, only for Perry to jump him before he can get inside. The beating starts on the floor, with Allin being sent into the cage and steps. They fight into the crowd and brawl around the arena before coming back to ringside. Allin is sent inside and goes face first into a trashcan in the corner, allowing Perry to pose.

Nick Jackson is in at #2 and brings a chair and a case of some kind. A guillotine legdrop hits Allin and he gets sent into the cage as we take a break. Back with Mark Briscoe coming in at #2 to even things up and slug away. A running step up dive hits Perry and there’s a suplex to put Nick down as well. Briscoe brings in a ladder to beat on Nick and then crushes it onto Nick in the corner. A trashcan to the head has Nick in more trouble but it’s Matt Jackson in at #3 to put the Elite back up.

The case to the head busts Briscoe open and Allin gets DDTed onto said case as well. Allin gets catapulted into a case to the head and a Dominator/top rope double stomp combination puts him down again. Anthony Bowens is in at #3 to even things up and cleans some house. Allin gets clotheslined down but comes back with a Scorpion Death Drop. Back up and Allin hits a top rope double stomp with the skateboard to Nick’s back as Bowens whips out the scissors or some stabbing.

Kazuchika Okada is in at #4 with a street sign to knock the good guys back down. A Tombstone onto the sign sets up a dropkick into a chair into Briscoe’s face as we take another break. Back again with Max Caster coming in at #4 to even things up. Caster whips out a barbed wire board but a suplex to Okada onto sad board is broken up. Instead Bowens is sent onto the board and another such board is placed on top of him, with Nick adding a Swanton to crush Bowens between them. We get the bag of tacks, some of which are put into Caster’s mouth for a superkick.

Hangman Page is….supposed to be in at #5 but he’s not here. The good guys use the delay to fight back, with Bowens tying barbed wire around his leg for Scissor Me Timbers to Nick. Swerve Strickland is in at #5 and NOW Page comes running down with a chair to jump Swerve from behind before he can get in. Swerve gets handcuffed to the cage on the outside as Briscoe is dropkicked into the barbed wire board in the corner.

A hard belt shot to the head has Swerve mostly out of it but Page keeps hitting him/yelling about it. The Bucks grab the mic and ask what Page is doing before threatening to fire him if he doesn’t get in. Page gets in and the cage is locked, with the match officially beginning, meaning first submission wins. The Bucks and Page keep arguing, allowing the rest of the good guys to fight back as we take another break.

Back again with Jeff Jarrett coming out to do something but Brandon Cutler cuts him off. Billy Gunn cuts off Cutler and Jarrett gives him a guitar shot, leaving Jarrett to set Swerve free. Prince Nana cuts the cage open so Swerve can get in to wreck most of the Elite, leaving Page as the last man standing. They slug it out between the rings until the Buckshot Lariat is blocked. Page ties to hit him with a barbed wire board but Allin makes the save. Okada takes Allin down but Swerve is back up with a staple gun.

Nick breaks that up with a low blow and we finally see what is in the case from earlier: a bunch of staple guns! Well that was anticlimactic. Swerve gets stapled by four people at once but shrugs it off to beat up everyone, including stapling Okada’s finger. The Buckshot Lariat hits Okada by mistake and we take another break. Back again with four tables set up on the floor and Matt and Bowens climbing up the cage.

Swerve and Page have apparently crashed off the stage to get rid of both of them, with Bowens crashing off the cage and through the four tables to likely join them. Briscoe hits a bunch of Jay Drillers and some of the Elite are put through tables. Allin climbs the cage and drops off the top to put Perry through a table for a huge crash. Perry gets cuffed to the cage so Briscoe can kendo stick him in the ribs.

Allin goes underneath the ring and pulls out a metal spike as Briscoe uses a SCAPEGOAT chair to smash Perry in the head (unprotected). Allin isn’t done and finds some gasoline to douse Perry. He threatens to light Perry on fire but Mat says Allin can have the TNT Title match at All In if he doesn’t do it. Allin says deal and Matt quits to save Perry at 48:55.

Rating: C+. It wasn’t a bad match, but it was every Blood & Guts you’ve seen before: long, more about the weapons and big spots than the hatred (save for Page vs. Swerve). In addition, the ending wasn’t so much about the Elite getting defeated, meaning this is going to keep going for a long time. The match definitely felt important and that is what matters most, but as usual, it felt like about twenty minutes could have been chopped off without missing much. There was enough good stuff here to keep it entertaining, but there was too much going on overall and it felt like we were having the match because it’s July.

 

Results
Chris Jericho b. Minoru Suzuki – Judas Effect
Britt Baker b. Hikaru Shida – Lockjaw
Pac b. Boulder – Brainbuster
Mariah May b. Kaitlyn Alexis – Storm Zero
Team AEW b. Elite when Matt Jackson quit

 

 

Head over to my website at kbwrestlingreviews.com with thousands of reviews from around the world and throughout wrestling history.

7.0

The final score: review Good

The 411

The main event felt big and the Kamille debut was nice, but there was a lot of stuff here that I couldn’t get into at all. Between Jericho and Suzuki doing their thing and the really long main event, this felt like a mostly two match show, with Storm and May boosting things up a bit. They were focused on one match for the most part here and it was good enough to get by. Now we can get on towards All In though, which is the show that really matters, so the real work starts next week.